Trump’s Gag Order Is Back—But Narrower
The judges blasted Trump’s requests to push his criminal trial to after the 2024 election, arguing it would “create perverse incentives.”
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
A federal appeals court largely reinstated a gag order on former President Donald Trump in his federal election subversion case and poured cold water on his pleas for the trial to be held after the 2024 election.
The three-judge panel ordered that Trump largely be barred from singling out individuals related to the court proceedings in such a way that it could interfere with the proceedings in the criminal case. But Trump can still make public statements about Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the case against him
“Mr. Trump’s documented pattern of speech and its demonstrated real-time, real-world consequences pose a significant and imminent threat to the functioning of the criminal trial process in this case,” the court wrote in its decision. “Many of former President Trump’s public statements attacking witnesses, trial participants, and court staff pose a danger to the integrity of these criminal proceedings.
The ruling is likely to be appealed by Trump’s team, who had argued it was “breathtakingly overbroad.” The judge overseeing the case, Tanya S. Chutkan, suspended the gag order in October.
Trump is charged with four felonies relating to his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
The judges also blasted Trump’s requests to punt his criminal trial to after the 2024 election, in which he is widely expected to be the Republican nominee.
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“Delaying the trial date until after the election, as Mr. Trump proposes, would be counterproductive, create perverse incentives, and unreasonably burden the judicial process,” the judges wrote.
“... Mr. Trump is also an indicted criminal defendant, and he must stand trial in a courtroom under the same procedures that govern all other criminal defendants,” they continued. “That is what the rule of law means.”
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